My primary research interest is the physical chemistry associated with fragrances. The chemistry of fragrances is an exciting and diverse field touching on all of the disciplines within chemistry and several areas outside what is commonly perceived as chemistry. My research is designed to advance an often folkloric understanding of fragrances into a quantitative science by using physicochemical measurements and models. For example, materials understood by perfumers as “fixatives” can be modeled as ingredients that weakly bond to other fragrance materials slowing down their release (reducing vapor pressure). An understanding the nature and degree of the chemical bonding should help identify the best performing fixatives for a given fragrance material. Other interests include the evaporation of fragrances from surface, the slow release of fragrances via degradation of precursor molecules, fragrance partitioning in micellar systems and use of quantitative olfactive techniques in detection.
